An update from @PatrickMahomes: pic.twitter.com/QD2h0MfJJ4
— Kansas City Chiefs (@Chiefs) January 25, 2023
Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes is hoping to have a better idea of where he’s at in his recovery from a high ankle sprain on Wednesday.
Andy Reid confirmed that Mahomes would practice, potentially in full capacity to start off the practice week. It was certainly a surprise, given how bad the injury looked when it occurred during the AFC divisional round tilt with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
When Mahomes addressed reporters on Wednesday, it was the first time since his postgame press conference on Saturday. He provided everyone with an update on his ankle.
“It’s doing good,” Mahomes said. “A few days of treatment, a few days of rehab. Excited to get on the practice field and kind of test it out and see where I’m at. But it’s feeling good so far.”
He took reporters through the moments following the game and what the rest of his week looked like in terms of testing, rehab and recovery work.
“Yeah, I was able to do some extra testing just to make sure everything was good the night after the game,” Mahomes said. “And then get a few things done to help the treatment kind of start off. The next few days have kind of been an all-day thing where you’re either doing treatment or rehab or watching film. I had to take Brittany (Mahomes) a few places with me, so I could be around the kids a little bit, but it’s a full-day thing where you’re trying to make sure you’re obviously prepared for the Bengals and a good football team mentally and physically.”
This isn’t the first injury that Mahomes has dealt with to his lower body in the NFL. Asked how this compares to the other injuries, Mahomes first described the toughest injury he faced — his turf toe injury during the 2020 playoffs.
“Probably my toe would be the toughest injury,” Mahomes said. “I remember when I had my toe, I had to curl my toes when I walked. So that was probably the toughest injury I’ve had to play through. But I’ve dealt with a lot of them and you kind of just have to get yourself to focus on what needs to be focused on and that’s the team that you’re playing. You prepare your body all week and when you get to Sunday you focus on playing the football game. That’s what I’m going to try to do this week.”
As for how this ankle sprain compares to the one he suffered against the Jaguars in Week 1 of the 2019 season, Mahomes says it’s a similar injury, but it will present a different challenge.
“Yeah, it’s very similar, just a different ankle,” Mahomes said. “Especially, different ankles at the quarterback position, you’re playing off of and throwing off different stuff. So the last one was the leg that I landed on, so I had to find ways to throw where I could land and keep it in the right spot. This time I’ll have to find ways to push off and still make throws the right way. Definitely similar in a sense, but different limitations that I’ll have to work through.”
What exactly his limitations might be in the AFC Championship Game against the Bengals remain to be seen. Right now, Mahomes says he’ll continue to push himself to be at his best for Sunday.
“I think we’ll see throughout the week,” Mahomes said. “I haven’t got to go out in practice yet and put myself in those positions. I’ve done limited stuff in kind of a small box of what I could do. But I’ll push it today and then the next day and then the next day again to see what I can do — to not reaggravate the injury obviously — but to push it to see what I’ll be able to do on Sunday.”
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